Radio Technique
YOUR TURN! We need membership discussion of the most important subject to affect the hobby for years: i.e., "How best to use the 50 channels assigned exclusively for RC aircraft?" I have received some thoughtful reader letters which should be shared with you. Let's begin. Here's the first one from Thomas Wilk, Treasurer, Duluth Radio Control Club, 212 W. Austin St., Duluth, MN 55803: "Re: your August 1988 column: Who is using OWBAMs? (OWBAM: old wideband AM radios-Ed.) We are, a club of 60 members. There are about 125 radios. I doubt if 25 are narrow band. I have not yet seen one on the lower frequencies, nor have I seen a PCM or heard anything good about them.
Radio Technique
Narrow-band systems available now: Airtronics, Inc. offers a new line of super narrow-band Gold label receivers for the U.S. and Canada. Airtronics is also the first manufacturer to submit independent laboratory test results to AMA HQ which demonstrate that both the new receiver and transmitter modules meet and/or exceed the AMA Guidelines for narrow band (1991 and later) performance. The best part is that these narrow-band receivers and matching transmitter modules are being made available to owners of existing wideband Airtronics equipment. (Isn't that what I predicted last year?)
Radio Technique
PREFACE: In my AMA position as frequency coordinator for District II, I receive requests for loan of the scanner that the AMA has assigned to the district. I usually interrogate the requester to find out what kind of troubles are being investigated. It usually turns out that most of them can be solved mathematically. For the rest, I usually think how futile the monitoring effort will be, because the person who will do the monitoring doesn't know what to look for-or how to identify it.
WRAM Show '89
THE FORECAST on Friday, February 24, was for 10 inches of snow by rush hour. Decision time. Should I go to the WRAM Show or wait out the snowfall? Since the van was equipped for the Alaska trip, I reasoned it should be ready for anything. I went to White Plains. This show was held in the renovated Westchester County Civic Center. The renovators did a fine job. There was more room for the show (150 booths), a nicer theater for the movies and for the District II meeting, and more room for the static displays and for the Swap Shop.
Radio Technique
WHAT FOLLOWS is a detailed specification, with a list of assumptions and definitions, for a computer program that you are invited to write for yourself. If you have ever tried to develop a computer program, you already know how helpful a well thought out specification is. Take it any way you want. If enough people work at the problem, we may get a solution. What's the problem? The problem is that we want to fly with as much confidence as possible during the period when people are changing over from wideband to narrow-band equipment.
